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Based in Singapore, I have been involved and invested in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies since 2011. I launched and ran a Bitcoin point-of-sale payment service in 2013 and became one of the representatives of the space in the region, having spoken with various global media and at international conferences.

I focus on projects with real value proposition, proper incentive analysis, and with investors' returns in mind. For consulting or speaking requests, reach out via contact form. To subscribe to posts and updates, fill in the form below.

Nov 20 How to split your BCH coins

If you want to split your coins for whatever reason before your wallet provides a tool for it, here’s how to do it. I’ll show an example with Bitcoin.com wallet, but it should work with pretty much any software or hardware wallet you are using. I’ve not tried this with my Trezor yet. I will do that soon and confirm here.

Use at your own risk. Make sure you know what you’re doing and if you think I don’t, or you know of a more elegant way, let me know so I can edit this post.

In summary, what you will do using the steps below is to create a transaction, which includes all your coins, and which will be compatible only with the upgraded ABC network. That will split off all your balance to the ABC-only wallet. After that, you will import your legacy BCH wallet to a new SV-compatible wallet and optionally move your coins from there to where you need them.

Steps

1. Download splitting wallet

2. Start the wallet with ABC network

Launch Electron Cash and create a new standard wallet. No need to be too serious about backup or password, you’ll be only transferring tiny amount in and out.

Open Tools -> Network

In ‘Server’ tab change Server to one of those running ABC in this list, e.g. bch.imaginary.cash.

When you put the host name into the Server field, it should automatically update in ‘Overview’ tab.

3. Use the coin splitting tool

Open Tools -> Coin Splitter

Right-Click on the Split Contract to Select All and Copy.

4. Fund the coin splitting tool

Open your your main wallet app. Select the BCH wallet you want to split and click ‘Send’. Paste the split contract to the address field. The field will now contain prefix “Splitting Contract: ”. Remove it, so only address pxxxxxxxxx… remains.

The field will now contain prefix “Splitting Contract: ”. Remove it, so only address pxxxxxxxxx… remains.

The wallet will automatically move to the next screen. Switch to BCH input and put 0.00005 BCH (that’s the minimum Bitcoin.com wallet allows - it might be lower or higher for your wallet). Enter your password (hopefully you have one :-) and send the transaction.

Wait for confirmation.

5. Send the transaction back to your wallet

Close and reopen electron wallet. Open the coin splitter again. Your transaction should now be populated in TXID.

Your transaction should now be populated in TXID.

Open Bitcoin.com, select the BCH wallet you are splitting and select ‘Receive’. Copy the address and paste it to the splitter’s ‘Output to’ field. Leave the ‘Combine with…’ selected and Click ‘Redeem with Split’.

Broadcast window will open, click ‘Broadcast’.

You should now see the transaction in your main wallet.

Wait for confirmation again

6. Create new primary wallet (optional)

Because the next step will involve exposing your mnemonic to Electron wallet, it is recommended, that you create a new wallet in your primary wallet app, especially if you are using a hardware wallet.

7. Sweep the funds

Now you’ll combine all your funds, including those coming from ABC-only-compatible output in one transaction and send it to a new address. This will create a new output compatible only with ABC. In the next step, you will recover the same funds on SV chain, creating two separate, almost equal balances on two separate chains.

In your main wallet app, get a new receiving address either from your new wallet if you created it, or from the existing one if you want to keep using it.

Open the wallet you are splitting, select ‘Send’ and paste the address. Yes, if that address is from the same wallet, it means you’re merely moving the amount within the wallet. What matters is, that this move happens on the blockchain and on ABC blockchain only.

Select maximum amount - this will ensure, that the tiny splitting transaction you’ve made will be involved in the sweep, which will make it incompatible with the SV chain. Send the transaction.

You should now have only ABC-compatible wallet in your main app

8. Create SV wallet from mnemonic

Now you will use a mnemonic of your original wallet to create a new SV wallet in Electron Cash. Open the Electron and select File - New/Restore.

Name your wallet.

Select ‘Standard wallet’

Select ‘I already have a seed’.

Write the mnemonic from your main wallet. If the ‘Next’ option is disabled, open ‘Options’ and select BIP39 in the popup. If you have set password in your main wallet, select ‘Extend this seed…’ too and enter the Bitcoin.com password on the next screen.

If you’re using Bitcoin.com wallet, change path on the next screen to m’/0’/0’. Other wallets will probably have default m’/145’/0’ path. Try both if you’re not sure. Nothing will happen if you get it wrong. Simply delete the wallet and start over with the other path.

Go to Tools - Network. Put satoshi.vision.cash as your server and wait until the wallet synchronizes. You should now have balance almost the same, slightly larger than your ABC wallet (ABC wallet lost a tiny bit in the splitting fees).

That’s it. You may either continue using this wallet, or create a separate one and sweep this one to the new one

Based in Singapore, I have been involved and invested in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies since 2011. I launched and ran a Bitcoin point-of-sale payment service in 2013 and became one of the representatives of the space in the region, having spoken with various global media and at international conferences.

I focus on projects with real value proposition, proper incentive analysis, and with investors' returns in mind. For consulting or speaking requests, reach out via contact form. To subscribe to posts and updates, fill in the form below.